LOCAL NEWS
Get the answers to five important questions related to the FSU-TMH agreement.
Steve Stewart discusses the latest candidates running for Tallahassee mayor.
The North Florida Fair Association, Leon County and the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency are negotiating changes meant to drive private investment in the fairgrounds, including a new stormwater facility, a community building, and down the road, perhaps a large hotel, restaurant or similar structure.
LOCAL SPORTS
On Friday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN the ‘Noles will take on the Virginia Cavaliers in Charlottesville, Virginia. Get a preview.
On Sep. 25th, the Chiles volleyball team (20-1) played an away game against the Gulf Breeze Dolphins (18-2) in their second meeting of the season. Going into the match, Gulf Breeze was ranked #1 in the 6A class while Chiles was ranked #1 in the 5A class. Get the details.
FLORIDA NEWS
Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia traveled to Alachua County Thursday, where he said his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team of auditors had determined that the local government had indulged in more than $84 million in “wasteful spending” over the past five years.
Local-government officials Tuesday offered some pushback against state efforts to cut property taxes and question city and county spending.
NATIONAL NEWS
A federal grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey yesterday on two criminal charges—lying to Congress and obstruction. The charges came five days before the statute of limitations was set to expire. If convicted, Comey faces up to five years in prison.
Starbucks to lay off 900 nonretail employees, will close hundreds of North American locations as part of $1B restructuring plan (More).
US stock markets close down (S&P 500 -0.5%, Dow -0.4%, Nasdaq -0.5%) (More)
TALLAHASSEE WEATHER
The Tallahassee Reports Daily Briefs: Friday, September 26, 2025 added by Staff on
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For the record : Our pedestrian bridge is the same design, not sure if the same contractor, as the bridge that collapsed in South Florida. When Tallahassee was questioned as to the construction — it was checked out and found safe. Anybody else remember ?
@David — I hadn’t heard the final tab on the pedestrian bridge. Sadly, at the time it was built a decent pedestrian bridge could have been built for under a million, but that didn’t fit the politician’s view of what Tallahassee should look like. We now have a skyline that looks more like a big city’s than a small town and keep adding to it with all of the 4-story apartment buildings going up.
Traffic timing is one of my pet peeves. Back in the 80s Tallahassee sought a vendor to handle it. I was working for a Fortune 100 computer company and tried to get them interested in the project as a way to sell more of their equipment and a potential customer base in the 10s of thousands. They declined, and we’re left with what you see today.
Hey Tallahassee R*T=D. Every middle school kid is taught that Rate times Time equals Distance. That’s the key to traffic timing. It’s not that tough to time the lights to prioritize traffic leaving the center of town at 4:30, and to prioritize morning traffic inbound.
Maybe we can put a Hilton in 32304. That’d be great…
Seems like the city’s answer to everything is more hotels and restaurants.
I’ve lived here all my life, and I have never heard anyone say “The fairgrounds needs more hotels and restaurants…” And when they’re done eating, they can stroll through the bucolic streets of Apalachee ridge. Hahaha
@ A Skeptic = That Bridge was $7.4M and they had a chance to spend just $3.8M on one, I had suggested them to just “Re-Time” the Traffic Lights a bit to give people a little more time to Cross at the Top and Bottom of the Hill but they were set on that Bridge. Once the Bridge was done, I think it was Nic Mattox that suggested putting a Counter on the Bridge to show everyone how much it was getting used. That was a failure (very little use) so soon after that, you should have noticed that all of the 5K and 10K Runs were now being Started in the Park and the Runners had to run over the Bridge going and coming. That got the Counts up.
I believe at first, I read that they had a budget of $8M to Add On To or Build a new Police Station but instead, spent $6M on the Northwood Mall then another $1.5M just to tear it down.
Go look at what they did to East 5th Avenue, that One Block long Road between What-A-Burger and the Board of Realtors Building, They tore it out, all new Road Bed, Drainage, Curbing, Sidewalk, Retaining Wall, GAS Street Lights (two have been out for YEARS), Bike Racks, Water Fountains, 8 Gain Plug Outlets at every other Parking Space that are LIVE for anyone. 2/3’s of the Road has a Brick Pattern pounded into it and painted and Land Scaping. Not sure how many Millions that cost or WHY it was done.
Agreed, David, that this is a bad plan. But it does align nicely with other questionable decisions and proposals from our local governments. They spent $5M on a pedestrian bridge over South Monroe street that was unnecessary, could have been done cheaper, and is mostly unused. The new police station, originally budgeted at $60M is now expected to be $135M. Tallahassee Police are obviously not spending much time on patrol. I guess they need a more elegant place to drink coffee. And now there’s a proposal to build 2,000 houses on what is now Lake Jackson.
Insanity is contagious.
The Fairgrounds is NOT that big of Property to do all that to. When the Fair is their and the Dog Events are their, there isn’t enough Parking and NOW you are wanting to add a Hotel, Community Building two HUGE Water Reservoir’s. Your Storm Water Reservoir’s could be put on the other side of Tram Road behind DMV and connect it to the one that is already there. I know that they way you all have been throwing money around over the last few years, $30Million wont be nearly enough.